Ex-Idol Contestant Luke Menard is Battling Cancer

I know you remember Luke Menard from this past season on AI. He had a wonderful smile and an amazing voice. He was sort of quiet and didn’t get the coverage that a lot of the other contestants got. Somehow he got lost in the shuffle of huge talents and fresh faces – even though his voice and stage presence were straight on flawless.

Sadly, the 29 year old former American Idol contestant is battling Stage Two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the immune system. When he went to the doctor, Luke thought he had “walking pneumonia” but soon learned that his cough was much more serious than that.

When he was in the hospital in California (during the last weeks of the show), David Cook and Carly Smithson each visited him.

David Cook told People Magazine:

“I love Luke and I just wanted to show up and make sure that he understood that I love him and know that if there’s anything I can do for him and his wife, sign me up, you know? Luke, Michael Johns, Jason Yeager and myself, we kind of buddy-ed up one day at Hollywood week. We called ourselves the four horsemen. Any time one of your own is going through something as horrible as that, it makes everything else seem a little bit insignificant.

“Cancer,” Cook says, “is a very big part of my existence. I’m excited to be put in [the spotlight] where I can hopefully do something to help other people.”

David Cook’s brother, Adam, has been waging his own war against cancer for ten years (brain cancer).

Luke is back in his hometown now (Crawfordsville, Indiana) with his wife, family, and friends. His cancer, Stage Two Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, has a 95 percent survival rate, with treatment. While that’s extremely encouraging, Luke still has a lot on his plate to deal with, so keep him in your thoughts and prayers (as well as Adam Cook, of course.)

You can visit Luke’s MySpace and show him your support. His mood? Determined.